Expendable
by RevolCram
Summary: Tails is left feeling particularly low after deciding he's useless in the field of battle. What he needs is to be reminded of all the times his help has been invaluable to Sonic, and someone may be able to help with that.


The sunlight gleamed from the rounded body of Dr Robotnik's latest machine. It sported two strong legs and four arms made of thick cable which swung around and slammed down on the earth with considerable force. Two arms had large spherical hands which could crush and destroy whilst the other two had flexible claws, designed for clutching.

"Your creativity isn't as great as it used to be, Eggman," Sonic yelled as he effortlessly dodged the attacks aimed at him. He leapt from place to place with ease, just barely escaping the steel spheres that were launched his way. As Eggman grew increasingly frustrated, he commanded his machine to aim the fist-like hands at Sonic with more force. The hedgehog steadied himself, watching one of the right arms raise. He sprang into the air just before it hit the ground, leaving a large crater in its wake. The cable arm retreated back to the main body, this time bringing a guest along with it. Sonic had landed on the fist and was racing towards the small control room built into the robot's main body where its controller lay, vulnerable to attack.

A sweat broke out on the Doctor's forehead as he watched his nemesis approaching through tinted glass. He pictured the next few seconds; Sonic curling into a spiny ball and smashing through the cockpit, taking out the engine and probably Eggman with it.

What really happened was worse, though. Sonic came to an abrupt halt in front of the glass and pressed his face close to it. The glass was designed in a way that Eggman could see through it from the inside but nobody could see in from the outside. Sonic was staring at blank, black glass but he knew exactly what was inside. With this in mind, he winked, stuck out his tongue and taunted, "you're too slow!" before sprinting out of sight. How humiliating. Eggman's fists slammed down on the control panel in anger. He was never going to catch that blue pest; the huge robots he designed were bulky and built for strength, not speed. He needed a slower target.

As if being summoned, a small shape appeared from the distance. It was hovering in the air in the top right-hand corner of Eggman's rectangular screen and carrying some sort of complicated scanning technology. A smile spread across Eggman's face like water spilling along the ground.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled, surveying the ground below for his friend. Sonic's speed was of course very useful in battles and just for having fun, but it made him difficult to find when he was dashing here and there. A rustle in the trees alerted Tails to Sonic's whereabouts. The small fox flew carefully around the intimidating machine and swooped to the ground just as Sonic approached.

"Sonic, I did I full scan of the robot. Its weak point is in the lower body but first you gotta-"

The fox's words were cut short by a loud sound similar to a whip cracking the air, followed by a confused cry and a shout of "Tails!". One of the arms which exhibited a claw-like hand had grabbed Tails and retreated, keeping him close to the the main body of the machine. The stiff metal hands held Tails tightly, squeezing the breath out of him. Eggman let out a deep laugh. There was no way Sonic would harm the machine if his best friend was in danger of being harmed at the same time.

Sonic clenched his fists, keeping his eyes on the frantic Tails who was held rigidly in the robot's grip. The small handset which Tails had used to scan the robot for weak spots lay in the grass where he had stood moments before. Sonic stepped forwards and picked it up, hoping to find some strategy of destroying the machine without putting his friend at risk. He was greeted by a glowing blue screen full of flickering 1's and 0's. Binary code which only Tails could read.

_I'm going to have to take a chance_, Sonic thought with a heavy feeling in his chest. Tossing the device to the ground, he considered what Tails had said earlier on. _The weak spot is the lower body, but before I hit that I have to do something else... Guess I'll have to pick at random and hope for the best._

Picking up speed, he ran towards the machine, flipping over and spinning into a ball. He dashed along the grass in his ball-like state, using all of his senses besides his sight to guide him towards his target. When he got close he launched himself from the ground - narrowly dodging another large fist at the same time - and slid along the smooth body of the robot. The target was the cabled arms. Sonic drilled into the artificial shoulders using his quills and managed to detach one, two, three arms from the body. As they fell heavily to the ground, Sonic headed for the only arm left; the one which held Tails. He span through the shoulder once more to detach it from the body, forcing the claw to loosen and release a crushed and dizzy Tails from its grip. Sonic caught his friend in mid-air and landed him safely on the ground.

"Stay here," Sonic said gently. He barely allowed Tails to nod weakly in response before turning to what was left of the machine. Huge sparks flickered from where the limbs had been detached, obscuring the view and making Sonic's next move more dangerous. He leapt into a run and got close to the robot before jumping into a ball and spindashing through the lower body of it. Smoke immediately billowed from the injury and the robot toppled to the side, landing with a large clang. A small fire burst from the engine. Sonic's blue quills glowed orange from the flames as he lifted a disorientated Tails into his arms and prepared to head home, with just enough time to glance back and observe Eggman's trademark pod disappearing in the distance.

_One week later._

It was a strange place, the Mystic Ruins. "Mystic" was exactly the right word to describe it; the odd contrast of thick green trees, deep blue ocean and a crashing waterfall compared with the rickety wooden construction which held the train station. For some reason Shadow enjoyed coming here and standing atop the sloping mountains, observing all which was below. The setting was so bizarre he never tired of looking at it; so silent that he could sit undisturbed for hours. Of course there was always the ocassional rattle of train on track and the distant faded sound of Tails in his workshop.

Not today, however. Shadow found this most unusual. Although he didn't know the fox very well, he was somewhat fond of the kid's naïve ways and excitement over tiny things like technology and aircrafts. He knew that Tails enjoyed building and creating more than anything in the world, besides maybe spending time with Sonic. Shadow could only guess that Tails was out with the blue hedgehog somewhere rather than tinkering in his workshop, but on closer inspection Shadow noticed the kid sitting on the step outside his home, alone.

The dark hedgehog was reluctant to approach him, having never held a full conversation with the fox before and not really knowing how to begin one. Instead he decided to sit down on the step as well, though with a small distance between the two of them. At first Tails seemed to ignore him but after a few moments turned to give him a brief smile which is when Shadow noticed the neat white bandage on Tails' upper right arm. Brilliant conversation starter.

"Workshop accident?" he asked in his quiet, mysterious voice. Tails inspected his bandage as if having forgotten about it and shook his head.

"No. Incident with Eggman," he replied. "Just some bruising but Sonic insisted I put some bandage on to pad it out and protect it."

Shadow simply nodded, not pressing the issue further. Tails remained silent too, scraping his bottom lip with his front teeth as he considered.

"Shadow," he said before he changed his mind, "I know we haven't really spent a lot of time together so you've never really seen me in action much but... D-do you think I'm useless? You know, when we're fighting Eggman and stuff." Shadow said nothing, playing Tails' slightly jumbled words in head whilst thinking back to the limited times they had worked together to save the world. Tails continued, "it's just that I only ever seem to get injured and cause trouble for Sonic. I feel like I don't help him at all..."

Still silent, Shadow rose to his feet and reached behind his quills to produce a shining green Chaos Emerald, one of the legendary jewels with vast powers. He began to toss it in the air and catch it again.

"I don't know you very well but I know Faker is fond of you. He wouldn't like you to be thinking like this. Have you attempted to discuss it with him?"

"No," Tails admitted, his eyes on the floor. "I know that even if he did find me inconvinient he wouldn't admit it; he'd just say something nice and I'd know he was lying."

"Well then," Shadow began, catching the emerald one last time and holding it in front of Tails' face, "shall we go back in time and see how exactly you've helped Faker?"

Tails furrowed his brow, eyeing Shadow and the Chaos Emerald suspiciously. "Why would you want to help me?" he queried.

"I have nothing better to do," Shadow explained simply. He squeezed the emerald in his hand and swept his arm to the side, shouting "chaos control!" as he did so. Immediately what resembled a rip in the scenery opened up next to them and Shadow stepped towards it. "Firstly, we have to go back to when you met your friend," he said calmly, walking slowly into the rip. A hesitant Tails didn't move from his step until Shadow had almost disappeared and then temptation overcame the fox and he got to his feet and followed the hedgehog through the portal, back to roughly six years ago.

Tails recognised where he was even before his vision had completely returned. The indescribable smell of salt water and grass, the sound of wind blowing through trees and waterfalls roaring in the distance. It was where he had lived when he was much younger; where he had first met Sonic and tagged along with him. Emerald Hill Zone. He hadn't visited it for years. The white light which blurred his vision cleared and he was able to observe the area properly. He could see rings in front of him and Badniks - Eggman's robots - in the distance. The nostalgia was overwhelming.

"Now listen," Shadow said firmly as he grabbed the dazed fox's good arm, "you're not experienced in time travel. I learnt what I know from an expert who was from the future. Stay with me and don't do anything without consulting me first. Got it?" Tails nodded. "Nobody from this timeline can see us. I know certain techniques to get us noticed but that won't be necessary from here on in. I've already caused the distraction."

"Distraction?"

"Whilst you were still coming to, I caused a small explosion to alter Faker's path and lead him away from your meeting point." Upon hearing these words, the colour drained from Tails' face. He swallowed hard as he digested the information.

"S-so... me and Sonic never met?"

"All timelines are reversable," Shadow assured, "as long as I know what to reverse. Which is why you can't change anything. I might not know how to put it right."

Tails didn't need to be told twice. If his and Sonic's friendship would be put in danger, he wasn't going to go messing around in a hurry. Suddenly the fox noticed a familiar sound in the distance. The frantic swish of long grass and trees could mean only one thing: Sonic the hedgehog. Shadow and Tails watched from the sidelines as Sonic approached, smaller and rounder than the one from the present day. He began collecting rings and smashing up Badniks. _I should be tagging along behind him,_ Tails thought miserably. He felt the smooth surface of a Chaos emerald being pressed into his hand.

"We're done here," Shadow stated, and the special two words were uttered just as Sonic spindashed out of sight.

The weird white light was less intense the second time around. Tails took a little time to get his bearings. At first he was unsure where he was, though a loud rumbling could be heard, punctuated by odd whirs and the occassional buzz of what sounded like laser fire. The ground beneath him vibrated as if they were stood atop an engine. Tails' eyes cleared enough for him to see a long platform made of metal grating and surrounded by pale blue sky. Shadow stood on the edge of the platform and beckoned Tails over.

The fox stood at the edge of the platform and peered over. In the distance and a little below where they stood, a comfortingly familiar biplane could be spotted amongst the clouds. Tails glanced over his shoulder and immediately worked out where he was; the Egg Fortress. He remembered guiding the Tornado through floating Badniks while Sonic took out as many as he could. But he didn't remember boarding the Egg Fortress himself. Why was that?

Tails gasped as he remembered the events which followed the sky chase. If he looked more carefully, he could see that the Tornado was in a bad condition; smoke trailed behind it and several chunks of wing and tail had been chipped off, making steering difficult and causing the plane to shake as it flew. Sonic was also clearly injured, but had a stony determined look on his face.

"Without you to guide the plane, Sonic couldn't focus all of his concentration on defeating the robots," Shadow explained. He had obviously visited the past before and knew what transpired in Sonic and Tails' history. That meant he knew what was coming next.

Several laser beams burst from various places on the ship. Sonic did well to dodge them but of course one hit the Tornado dead-on and the plane went spiralling towards the ground, bathing the sky in thick smoke.

"What really happened is that Sonic carried on looking for the Doctor whilst you made repairs to the plane, correct?" Shadow confirmed. Tails nodded.

"Yeah, that's right," the fox said as he watched the Tornado's rapid descent sadly. "Let's go somewhere else."

The next place they visited was a few years later. The Mystic Ruins; looking relatively the same to how it did in the day they lived in apart from one thing: the hill on which Tails had built his home and workshop was empty. Obviously as he didn't exist, neither did his workshop, and the hill looked horribly bare without it. A large shadow loomed over the area, and Tails looked up to notice the Egg Carrier - a ship he'd almost forgotten about. It slowly moved over the sea, and Tails noticed Sonic rushing towards the forest. _That must be where he keeps the Tornado,_ Tails thought. A while later they saw the red plane chasing after the Doctor's ship and Tails observed that it was noticably slower than usual. Of course, as it wouldn't have all the upgrades he added to it.

Shadow began to narrate the events. "Shortly after this, Faker's plane is shot and one of the wings badly damaged. It lands in a place very far from him. He is sidetracked by the pink hedgehog and has little time to make repairs. In the usual timeline, you create the upgraded version of your plane but Sonic never had this opportunity. Instead he is captured by the Doctor and locked in a prison cell but later escapes. There are more problems to follow, however."

The muttering of the magic words and a flash of green light transported them. Station Square; night time. A crowd of panicked people were gathered, backed into a corner, all screaming hysterically and shouting for help.

"I remember this," Tails mumbled. Soon enough, a large robot with four legs slammed down in the middle of the street. Eggman was at the controls and began to walk slowly forwards, the heavy feet causing destruction as he did so. Tails had defeated this machine, which was named the Egg Walker. He had saved the town and become a hero for it; even been awarded a Chaos emerald for his troubles. Yet now all of those people were terrified because he wasn't there to save them. Sonic was obviously busy elsewhere, as he had been in the real timeline. Tails turned away, not wishing to watch any more destruction which Eggman would undoubtedly cause before anyone reached him.

"Do you remember what happened prior to this?" Shadow asked quietly. Tails thought back, and his eyes widened as he recalled.

"The missile!" he exclaimed. "Eggman shot a missile into the centre of the city. It failed but he wanted to repair it... only I got there first. But in this timeline..." He trailed off.

"I didn't think you'd want to see the aftermath of that," Shadow explained. Tails agreed, shuddering at the thought of the mass destruction a missle that size would have caused. Despite not facing the people who were fleeing in terror, Tails could still hear their cries and it sickened him. He cupped his hands over his triangular ears and asked to leave.

Shadow transported Tails to a number of different places after that. The time when Neo Metal Sonic attempted to rule the world; where Sonic and Knuckles failed to reach him in time due to many high obstacles blocking their way. The time when Sonic and Tails were pulled into a different dimension and met a young girl called Marine - without Tails there to develop technology, Sonic at first had difficulty crossing the seas and eventually ended up being stranded in the dimension with no knowledge of inter-dimensional travel. The time when Tails invented a translator for a new species they encountered; without it Sonic couldn't communicate with them and found it difficult to help them out.

"Have you learnt anything from this?" Shadow asked as they prepared to head back to their own time. Tails looked at the ground, thinking back on all those different battles he'd seen.

"I guess so. But even if I've helped a few times, I still think I just get in the way a lot. I feel so useless most of the time."

"Then we have one more place to go," Shadow stated. He once again held the emerald in Tails' hand and muttered "chaos control". They arrived in the same field Tails had battled in hundreds of times before; the same place Eggman had brought that machine just a week ago. The two of them were concealed by the hedges which lined the field and from where they stood, an unfamiliar robot could be seen. It was large and square-bodied, with thick arms and very flexible legs designed for mobility. Its head was made of Eggman's usual rounded pod.

"Where are we?" Tails asked, puzzled. "I mean, I know where we are but... what's the date?"

"Present day," Shadow answered. "Around ten minutes after we began to travel."

There was a sudden noise, like a pillow hitting the floor, and Tails turned to the field. A blur of blue was running noticably slower than usual next to the robot. Dr Eggman was laughing with apparant joy and watching Sonic run in circles around him.

"Did that give you a headache, hedgehog?" Eggman yelled in an upbeat manner. "My newest creation is reinforced, specially designed to be unaffected by your pesky spindash or whatever it is you call it!" Sonic scowled and massaged his head mournfully as he ran.

"You know exactly what it's called! And just 'cause I can't spin through it, doesn't make it indestructable!" Sonic pulled back the cuff of his left glove to reveal a tiny, square screen strapped to his wrist, accompanied by some buttons. He pressed one of them and Tails heard a beeping noise, activated by the same device which was concealed underneath his own glove. The fox pulled back his cuff as Sonic began to speak into the device. "Tails! I'm in the field. Could really use your help, buddy. Can you hurry over here?"

A smile crept onto Tails' face. "I'm nearby. I'll be right there, Sonic." He spun his tails to lift himself into the air and appeared from within the bushes. Sonic immediately headed for his friend. "Whadd'ya need me to do?" Tails asked eagerly.

"The thing's reinforced; practically invincible against physical attacks. Can you do something to the engine? Fry the circuits or something?"

"Piece of cake!" Tails cried. The two of them ran away from the robot, avoiding the small missles which were shot from its powerful hands. They put a good distance between it and themselves before stopping. Tails began pressing buttons on his wrist device. "Just need to find the type of link between Eggman's controls and the engine... It might take a minute or two."

"I'll distract him, no problem," Sonic grinned. He dashed back towards Eggman, and Tails could hear him taunting the Doctor with insults and childish nicknames. Several large convulsions in the earth suggested that Eggman was trying to crush Sonic to the ground but evidently was missing every time. Finally, Tails got a sequence of numbers on his screen; it was a type of engine he had used a lot in his machines so he knew exactly how it worked. Which meant he knew exactly how to disable it.

"Sonic, get outta the way!"

The blue hedgehog joined Tails at his side, and the young fox pressed several more buttons on his device. Immediately the robot buzzed and wobbled, a series of tiny explosions fizzing in its body. Eggman had barely disconnected his pod from its body when the machine imploded quietly and fell to the ground, less quietly. Sonic turned to his sidekick and held up a hand for a high-five.

"Way to go, buddy!" he exclaimed as Tails slapped palms with him. "Couldn't have done that without you."

"Glad to help out, Sonic," Tails smiled.

"I know. You always are, and I have to say I'm glad. Probably wouldn't still be here if it weren't for you and your technology!" The two of them laughed a little, and Tails knew now that Sonic was probably right about that one. "I guess you're gonna want to collect some new parts from Eggman's robot, am I right?" Sonic continued. "I'll go home and start lunch."

Sonic ran off in the direction of Tails' workshop, and Tails walked over to the smoking robot and began to unscrew some engine parts he could use on his inventions. Shadow appeared from the bushes, having witnessed the battle.

"I hope I've helped you to find the answer you were looking for," he said in a quiet voice.

"You have. Thank you, Shadow," Tails beamed, his arms full of oily metal and wild wires. He gave the dark hedgehog a brief nod before turning around and heading home; already planning in his head a new type of machine. Anything to help his best friend save the world.


End file.
